Emily Glaser is one of Boston Makers’ original members, and has been doing outreach for us since 2014. She’s a tireless maker, organizer, and cheerleader for new projects. In this mini interview, find out what keeps her passionate about making.
What first got you interested in making, and why?
I grew up with parents who are makers. When I was in elementary school, every fall weekend was spent helping my mom set up at craft fairs in southeast Wisconsin. She made quilted wall hangings and other sewing projects. I was one of those kids who had a few homemade outfits, and we made a lot of craft projects together: Friendly Plastic, seed beads, embroidery, bracelets, hair scrunchies. Making made me permanently dissatisfied with things you can find in stores—I’m always looking for something unique, or maybe just a style from days past. Now that’s translated into other areas of my life—you know, making as a counter to capitalism and overconsumption—and I love the processes of creating, engineering, and personalizing.
Why did you join Boston Makers?
In 2014 I’d just moved to Jamaica Plain and, after a stint of basically living in the woods for a couple of years, I was eager to get involved with other humans. I was vaguely aware of the maker movement and wanted to participate in a neighborhood, community-resource group. I found out about a group meeting up at JP Licks, met Dominic and Darien [Boston Makers’ co-founders], and have dedicated almost every Tuesday since to the group. I joined the board in October 2015 and now serve as the Communications Director, so what I “make” is our monthly newsletter, agendas, meeting minutes…
What do you hope to learn as a volunteer?
So far I’ve learned how to run a nonprofit! Every year we’ve been through major changes, from meeting at JP Licks or Darien’s apartment to, now, our second and going on third makerspace, and bringing in an ever-growing and changing team of volunteers. My favorite thing is mentioning to people that I help run a makerspace and seeing people’s eyes light up as they think about something they want to make. I love learning about people’s projects and inspirations. Every idea has a story behind it, whether it’s trying to create a functional piece of furniture for a weird room, a way to capture an important event through sound or images, or some esoteric interest that just needs to be expressed and shared.
What are you most excited about working on right now?
I’ve been talking with some folks about installing free software and a Linux distro on some of our computers. We got a lovely donation of about twenty desktop towers last year that we’re barely using. It’s unfortunate that our laser cutter (a Speedy Trotec 100, an otherwise great machine) uses proprietary software, and I think people, especially makers, can benefit from using non-Adobe options for design, whether it’s a writing assignment, vector file, or a PCB. We’re planning to install Inkscape, GIMP, Krita, LibreOffice, and KiCAD for starters.
I’m also serving as an advisor for this year’s Boston Mini Maker Faire, hosted by the Children’s Museum, so I should mention to everyone reading this, APPLY! Deadline is July 21 and the Faire is September 17. Last summer, we brought the Spin Cycle to Mini Maker Faire, and it was so much fun.
If you could pick any project, what would you love to make in the future?
My nickname at Boston Makers is “Miss Words” so any project I do will involve writing. My dream job would be to (re)write, write, and craft all the historical plaques around Boston—not just to improve some clunky writing, but to better reflect the always charming, often flawed history of our city. For instance, the term “gerrymandering” came from a former governor, Elbridge Gerry, who redrew an electoral map to give himself a political advantage over two hundred years ago. Can we redesign that plaque to talk about how this term reflects a larger problem in our democracy? Plaques are often hidden in plain sight, but if you pay attention, they’re resources to learn something and even read a good joke.